October 30-November 1, 2026: PRADMOVA Festival in Prague (program)
16 min read
The festival events will be held at: U Lužického semináře 13, Prague 1.
General partners of the PRADMOVA 2026 festival in Prague: The German Marshall Fund of The United States and EuroBelarus.
Co-organizers: Belarusian Institute in Prague (Běloruský institut v Praze) , Society of Friends of Lusatia (Společnost přátel Lužice).
Partners of the Prague program: Magistrate of Prague (Magistrát hlavní města Prahy), Belarusian Students of the Czech Republic (Bělaruské studentstvo ČR), Skaryna Educational Society (Osvětový spolek Skaryna).
General information partner: Bellit.info. Information partners: Reform.news , “Litradio” .
The book fair will be located on the first floor of the venue. It will feature books by Gutenberg, RozUm Media, Kamunikat, “Mäne Nyam”, “Połackie Labyrinty”, Vesna, hochroth Minsk, “Yanushkevich”, Skaryna Press, SayBeat, as well as books by Surma, Lingua.by, Bukinist:ka, “Pflaumbaum”, “Logvinau” and others.
During the festival, the PrisonArt exhibition will be open – a gallery-archive of drawings by political prisoners in Belarus who were imprisoned after the 2020 presidential election and the events of the following years (some of the works are on display).
Admission to all festival events is free.
Friday, October 30, 2026
PLACEWKA A, U Lužického semináře 13, Praha 1
5:00 PM-6:00 PM – “A Book That Might Not Have Been: How Bykov Wrote “The Long Road Home”.”
The presentation of the new edition of Vasily Bykov’s “Long Road Home” will be dedicated not only to the writer’s autobiography itself, but also to the history of its creation. Written in 2002, at the height of his life and in forced emigration, this book became Bykov’s most open and confessional work – a conversation about childhood, war, literature, the Soviet system, Belarus and his own life choices. A participant in the meeting will be Alexander Lukashuk, the then director of the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty and one of the people without whom “Long Road Home” might not have appeared. Together with Sergei Navumchyk, he convinced Bykov of the need to write memoirs, supported him during his life in Prague, read the texts, discussed them with the author and was one of his closest interlocutors in recent years. Lukashuk will tell how Bykau agreed to write an autobiography, how the work on the manuscript went, what was discussed between the author and the editors, and what Bykau was like in private communication. A separate source for the conversation will be their correspondence, later published by the Lukashuks in the book “Letters Now Are Manna from Heaven…” – a testament to the writer’s life in emigration, his work, doubts, and connection with Belarus.
Participants: Alexander Lukashuk, Pavel Barkovsky.
18:00-19:30 – Discussion “Vaclau Havel and Belarus” . Elena Tsikhanovich, Tomasz Goskavets, Alexander Lukashuk, Alexei Kozharsky. Moderator Alexander Parshankov .
A discussion dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Václav Havel . People who knew Havel and worked with him will share their memories and try to answer the question of how Havel is relevant today.
19.30-21.00 – “Higher than this world” : in memory of poets. Participating are Andrei Khadanovich, Yauhen Baryshnikov, Sergei Shupa.
The night of October 29-30, 1937, is undoubtedly a black date in the history of our culture. At the same time, every year Belarusians all over the world honor the memory of the victims of terror by reading their poems and generally classical and modern Belarusian poetry. Returning the names “carefully forgotten” in Soviet times; reminding that with the help of artistic words, one can still resist violence and lies, express solidarity and support.
Participants of the evening as part of the Prague festival “Pradmova” will join the Night of (Un)Executed Poetry. Andrei Khodanovich will read poems and translations by the repressed – among others, Yuliy Taubin and Moishe Kulbak. Works by Serhiy Zhadan dedicated to the Ukrainian “Executed Revival”, Konstanty Ildefons Halchynsky, written in German captivity, and wartime poems by Iryna Shuvalova will also be performed. There will be new poems by Andrei Khodanovich from the book “At God’s Pause”. Yauhen Baryshnikov will not only provide musical support for the poems and translations, but will also perform several of his own songs, and translator and publisher Sergei Shupa will read several of Kulbak’s works in the original, in Yiddish.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
PLACEWKA A, U Lužického semináře 13, Praha 1
10.00-10.45 – Presentation of publications by the Theater and Drama Studies Workshop of the Department of Belarusian Studies on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Workshop and the 70th anniversary of the Department.
The publications are devoted to various aspects of the development of Belarusian literature. The first offers a new look at the literary achievements and figure of Vasil Bykov . The second examines individual aspects of the work of Algirdas Bakharevich . The third includes works by famous European scholars. The fourth includes works by young scholars.
Participant: Professor Andrei Moskvin . Moderator: Elena Markova.
10.50-11.40 – 150-hodździe Ciotki: feminisckaja i moŭnaja hrafičnaja spadčyna
This summer marks the 150th anniversary of Tsetka, a classic of Belarusian literature. An important anniversary not only for Belarusian literature, but also for feminism. Tsetka stood at the origins of the modern struggle for women’s rights. Another relevant aspect of Tsetka’s work and creativity is her linguistic graphic diversity: of course, the poetess wrote in both Latin and Cyrillic. Against the background of the ban on the Latin alphabet in Belarus, and also taking into account Tsetka’s own sympathy for the Latin alphabet, the Skaryna publishing house has prepared the second book in the Vilnius Series – the writer’s works in Latin. After the presentation, participants Vladislav Horbatsky and Igor Ivanov will talk about the relevance of the Belarusian Latin alphabet using the works of Tsetka, as well as many other writers.
Participants: Vladislav Horbatsky, Igor Ivanov.
11.45-13.00 – “Experts of the Crazy Time” : presentation of an anthology of modern Belarusian literature translated into Norwegian.
A conversation between editor and translator Marina Hobbel , editor and compiler Ulyana Veryna, and the authors of the anthology Algerd Bakharevich, Yulia Tsimafeeva, Dzmitry Strotsev , and Vladislav Horbatsky .
13.10-14.00 – Two ways of seeing the past: Krystyna Sabaliauskaite and Olga Tokarchuk . A conversation between translators about the novels “Silva Rerum” and “The Books of Jacob” .
What changes in a historical novel when history is written by women? Can a historical novel be trusted? Who has the right to speak on behalf of the past? At the center of the conversation are two great (not only in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative terms) historical novels of modern European literature: “The Books of Jacob” by Olga Tokarczuk and “Silva rerum” by Krystyna Sabalewskaite. Both writers return to the world of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – multilingual, multi-confessional, complex and completely unlike the modern map of Europe. But they do it in different ways. Sabalewskaite creates a dense, almost tangible atmosphere of Vilnius and the life of one noble family. Tokarczuk explores how historical narratives are born and what happens where documents are silent. Let’s talk about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, language and religion, women’s voices, memory and forgetfulness – and whether literature can show the past in a way that official history cannot. Two novels about the same historical world – and very different ways of seeing it.
With the participation of Sergei Shupa.
14.05-14.45 – “How did “Svayo” come about ? The adventures of the first translation of Marc Chagall into Belarusian.”
The story of the first translation of Marc Chagall into Belarusian. Why did “My Life” turn into “My Own”? How did this idea come about and what unexpected problems did the translator have to face? What is considered the original and why does the French edition raise questions? And finally — how does Chagall sound in Belarusian?
Participants: Sergei Shupa, Timur Kudzelich.
14.50-15.45 – Discussion around Sabina Brylo’s book “The Case of Viktor Babarika”.
What does the case look like from the outside — through documents, testimonies, and court materials — and from the inside, through the eyes of a person who lived through it? What does Viktar Babaryka learn about himself and his case in the book, and what does he see differently? Can the author learn something about the hero that he himself did not know at the time of the events? And what, on the contrary, never makes it into the documents and remains only in the person’s memory? How does the view of one’s own history change after prison? And what happens to an already written story when its hero finally gets the opportunity to speak for himself?
Participants: Tatiana Nyadbay, Viktor Babaryka.
15.50-16.50 – Sumus ne simus. Presentation of the collected works of Ales Rozanov in Italian and German translations.
The second book in the “Contesto” series by the Italian publishing house WriteUp Books is dedicated to the work of Ales Rozanov, one of the most talented and bright Belarusian poets. The trilingual book includes a significant part of the experimental works of the poet-philosopher. All original texts in Belarusian are accompanied by translations into Italian and German, with the exception of the section on poetry, where only one work (“The Box”) is in German. In addition to the translations by the compilers of the collection, the book contains translations into German by Elke Erb, Vladimir Chapega , and Halina Skakun , which were previously published in German editions. The foreword to the book was written by the well-known researcher of Belarusian literature Ulyana Verina , and the cover was drawn by the artist Sviatlana Sofia Demidovich . Alessandro Aquilli also took an active part in the preparation of the publication , helping to edit the Italian translations.
Participants: Alessandro Achilli — event moderator, Ulyana Veryna — author of the foreword, Maya Halavanava — translator and editor of the book, Thomas Weiler — translator and editor of the book (online).
17:00-18:00 – Discussion on the topic “Our Own and Foreign Homeland” around Algerd Bakharevich’s new novel “Underground Passages” with the participation of author Algerd Bakharevich, editor Sergei Shupa , and publisher Andrei Yanushkevich .
18.05-19.00 – Do Belarusians need poetry? Discussion on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the online magazine of contemporary poetry Taubin .
Do Belarusians read poetry? Is it in demand now? What trends in modern poetry can be observed? What role does the online magazine Taubin play in Belarusian literature? Is the statement that “every second person in Belarus is a poet” true? Ulyana Veryna, Artur Komorowski, Lusine and Anna Shakel will talk about this and more .
19.05-19.45 – The road to H.F. Lovecraft’s “Snow Country” is the road home.
Lovecraft so sincerely believed in the inevitable, sinister cosmic chaos, but he himself passionately longed to return to his childhood. The Land of Snow for him is the last line of defense of the human soul against the cold reality. Horrors are present here, but they are no longer the main goal. They are obstacles on the way to self-improvement and inner peace. To walk these paths together with the heroes, to visit ancient Lamar or Kelefais, to realize again the power of dreams and imagination is a wonderful challenge for the modern reader, who daily struggles with information noise and imbalance.
Participants: Ilya Sugaka , head of the BelRead initiative and the group of translators, Andrei Khadanovich , editor of the book.
8:00 PM-9:00 PM – Screening of the documentary “Vyrai” with discussion.
“Vyrai” is an author’s documentary essay that explores the phenomenon of the so-called “Russian world”, its presence and influence in modern Slovakia, and also attempts to compare this experience with the Belarusian context. For Belarusians, the “Russian world” is not only a cultural or linguistic concept, but also a reality that has shaped collective perception, identity and way of thinking for decades. Belarus has found itself in a situation where Russian cultural and informational influence has become so profound that many of its elements are perceived as natural and their own. The film examines this issue through the author’s personal and observational perspective, combining documentary observations, visual essays, archival materials and artistic allusions. One of the important artistic references of the film is the Belarusian artist and performer Ales Pushkin. His work, civic position and method of artistic resistance are reflected in the film through the author’s images. An open discussion with the director is planned after the screening.
With the participation of Valery “Shchyry” Neskarodzyany.
9:00 PM-10:00 PM – Program “Belarusian Lullabies” by Serzhuk Dolguschev .
PLACE B, U Lužického seminare 13, Praha 1
11.45-13.00 – How did the Jesuits see Polotsk — and what did they not notice? Discussion around the publication “Sources on the History of the Polotsk Collegium of the Society of Jesus 1579–1611.”
Participants: Nina Skepian , head of the publication project, director of the Belarusian Institute in Prague; Alexander Parshankov , historian, researcher of the book culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
13.10-14.00 – Gonzo, beatniks and activism. Presentation of the book “Rage and Love” by Max Shchur .
A conversation about autofiction, anti-literature, the beat tradition, gonzo journalism, and freedom of artistic expression. Special attention is paid to climate and political activism, personal experiences of participating in protests, and the search for literature’s place in a rapidly changing world.
Participants: Max Shchur, Pavel Lyagchilov.
14.05-14.45 – Scene of Exile. The seventh season of Belarusian theater abroad.
After 2020, Belarusian theater found itself in a situation that did not exist before: repression, exile, a break with the national theater infrastructure, and the need to create theater outside the country have become part of its reality. But exile is not only about loss and forced displacement. It is also a new form of existence, new theatrical languages, audiences, ways of working, and an idea of what a national theater can be. The book “Kupałowcy. Teatr narodowy na wygnaniu” explores the history and transformation of the group “Free Kupałowcy”—one of the most important symbols of Belarusian theatrical resistance. What did the seventh theater season bring? How are the relationships between theater, Belarusian audiences, and the European cultural context changing? Can we no longer talk about “exile,” but about a new model of existence for Belarusian theater? Special attention will be paid to new performances, themes, and artistic strategies of the last season: what has changed in theatrical language, what Belarusian theaters are talking about today, and how their perspective on the experience of repression, emigration, war, memory, and identity is changing.
Participants: Iryna Lappo, Natalia Rusetskaya.
14.50-15.45 – When Belarus became different: a story by a writer from the “South-West” of the second half of the nineties.
We are talking about the second half of the 1990s, a period when the Belarus we know today was being formed. Vladimir Kozlov had already graduated from university and worked in a newspaper. In his novel “Southwest”, he describes his own life at that time. Thus, a private story develops into an autobiographical epic: through a lyrical diary, a picture of a turning point is drawn, the legacy of which continues to influence us today.
Participants: Vladimir Kazlou, Timur Kudzelich.
15.50-16.50 – “Seven Years of the Belarusian Renaissance: A Lost Chance?”.
The presentation of the expanded edition of Sergei Navumchyk’s book “Seven Years of Renaissance, or Fragments of Modern Belarusian History (1988–1995)” will be dedicated to one of the most crucial periods in the modern history of Belarus – from the emergence of a mass national-democratic movement in the late 1980s to the first years of independence and the beginning of the formation of an authoritarian system. During the meeting, the Belarusian Popular Front and the national Renaissance, the gaining of independence, political disputes of the first half of the 1990s, as well as the reasons that, in the author’s opinion, led to the defeat of democratic and national forces and the victory of the pro-Moscow political course. A separate topic will be the question of how those seven years look today, three decades later: what the author considers to be confirmed by subsequent events in his assessments at the time, what he sees differently, and how the expanded edition differs from the book that was first published in 2006.
Participants: Sergei Navumchyk; host Yaraslau Ivanyuk.
18.05-19.00 – “Short Story: The World in a Few Pages.”
A discussion about the current state of the short story genre in Belarusian and world literature as part of the presentation of the collection of fairy-tale and grotesque stories by Sergei Ablameyka “Mountain Country” . During the meeting, viewers and listeners will learn about the development of the short story genre in modern English-language, Slavic-language and Scandinavian literature. The discussion will include, among other things, the work of the Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, Canadian writer Alice Munro, who wrote short stories and novels. The discussion will also focus on the short genre in modern Belarusian literature and the place of Sergei Ablameyka’s narrative prose in it.
Participants: Sergei Ablameyka, Alexander Lukashuk and Yan Maksimyuk .
19.05-19.45 – “On the border of poetry and autofiction: A thin book about what cannot be explained.”
The presentation of Alexander Lukashuk’s book “Incompleteness. A Thin Book” will be a conversation about the author’s unusual turn – from documentary and historical research to a book about love, poetry, memory and his own life. Lukashuk himself ironically notes that “publishing the first book about love at 70 is quite questionable”, but it is love – as presence, memory and an attempt to understand another person – that becomes one of the centers of this book. During the meeting, Alexander Lukashuk will tell what “incompleteness” means to him and why the book was subtitled “A Thin Book”. The conversation will also focus on its genre: whether it is poetry, essays, documentary prose, autofiction – or a conscious rejection of such boundaries.
With the participation of Yaroslav Ivanyuk and Alexander Lukashuk .
Sunday, November 1, 2026
PLACEWKA A, U Lužického semináře 13, Praha 1
11.00-11.40 – Fly, fly shuriken . Poems on the Belarusian-Czech border. Book by Lucine .
“Fly, Fly, Shuriken” is a book written by a Belarusian in Prague. What do the two languages of poetry – Belarusian and Czech – mean to the author? Is it freedom or compulsion? Is it a transitional state or achieved completeness? Or is the borderland freedom – word+movement+music+visualization?
Participants: Dmitry Strotsev, Lusine .
11.45-12.30 – Chernobyl: making the invisible visible.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the Pflaumbaum publishing house is preparing a collection of essays “The Chernobyl Generation: Voices from Belarus and Ukraine.” The book includes texts by Belarusian and Ukrainian authors who address the Chernobyl experience in different ways — personal, family, and collective. As part of the conversation, we suggest looking at Chernobyl not only as a 1986 disaster, but as something that continues to be present in our lives — sometimes clearly, sometimes invisibly. How do radiation, fear, memory, and the consequences of the disaster become part of everyday life? What remains outside the boundaries of official narratives and statistics? The authors of the collection will take part in the conversation. Through literature, personal stories, and memories, we will try to talk about Chernobyl as an experience that continues to shape memory, identity, and the idea of the future in Belarus and Ukraine.
Participants: Olga Gapeeva, Lusine, Sergei Shupa.
12:30-1:25 PM – Presentation of the books “Blood Circulation” and “I Cut History with Myself. Poems and Collages” .
“Blood Circulation”: “I weave my story from rags,/from rags, from ragged patches of memory,” — a cycle of poems by Yulia Timofeeva created in exile is a formally open memory project that traces her Belarusian family history, which, stretching from Belarus through Western Europe to Canada, covers an entire century. For the German translation of this book, the author received the Hilde Damin Prize for Literature in Exile (Heidelberg, Germany). The book was also shortlisted for the Internationaler Literaturpreis 2026 (Germany), as well as for the list of the best poetry books Lyrik-Empfehlungen 2026 (Germany). It is on the shortlist for the Belarusian Francyshko Bogushevich Prize.
About the book “I cut history myself. Poems and collages/ Ich zerschneide die Geschichte. Lyrik und Collagen” . What remains when the usual way of life is torn apart? Belarusian poet and translator Yulia Tsimafeeva left her homeland in 2020 for political reasons. In 2024, in Hamburg, she took up paper collages – the game became serious, metaphors emerged from the scraps. After all, exile means being cut out by history’s scissors. Collages, assembled from old books and magazines, create the world anew through absurd compositions. They are accompanied by short poems that do not provide explanations, but only clues – poetic hints at a torn identity in search of a new meaning. This is a personal and artistically fascinating work about exile, loss and the fragility of composing one’s own history. The book was published in a bilingual edition by the Berlin publishing house “Edition frölich” in 2025. Translated into German by Tina Wünschmann.
Participants: Yulia Tsimafeeva , moderator Algerd Bakharevich .
13.30-14.25 – Dictionary of a Nomad (Wörterbuch einer Nomadin) and other books. Conversation and reading with Olga Gapeeva . Moderation: Vladislav Horbatsky .
“Dictionary of the Nomad” is the title of a new book by the Belarusian poet and writer Olga Gapeeva, which was published in German in February 2026. Vladislav Horbatsky will talk to the writer about the new book, the fate of (Belarusian) nomads in Europe and the world, about language, identity, belonging, as well as alienation, home, gender and patriarchy. The writer will share her impressions and secrets of her nomadic life between Belarus and Germany, Crete and Japan. In addition to everything, the readership is waiting for a reading from the poet’s new book, as well as works from her unpublished heritage.
14.30-15.10 – “From Porto to Santiago” : presentation of the book by Stefan Korf .
Stefan Korf walked 300 km along the Camino de Santiago in the fall of 2025 — and recorded his impressions in a diary format. We invite you to talk to the author about the roads we choose, the experiences we gain from such journeys. And about the literature that emerges from such journeys.
With the participation of Stefan Korf .
15.15-16.00 – Anatomy of Hope: From European Literature to Byung-Cheol Han . Lecture-presentation to the release of the Belarusian translation of the book “The Spirit of Hope. Against the Society of Fear”.
Hope has rarely been honored in European thought. For centuries, writers and philosophers have seen it as an illusion, passive expectation, powerlessness, or self-deception that distances a person from reality. The release of the Belarusian translation of Byung-Cheol Han’s essay “The Spirit of Hope” is an opportunity to trace this skeptical path of European thought and understand how a modern Korean-German philosopher manages to turn the idea of hope upside down and restore its effectiveness.
16.05-17.00 – “Kalinovsky real, Kalinovsky literary ” . Conversation with the author of the book “Lexicon “Kolasov under your sickle”” .
Participants: Alexander Fyaduta, Sergei Ablameyka.
17:00-17:50 – “Human Tragicomedy” . The cult Czech eccentric Ladislav Klima for the first time in Belarusian.
Translator and book publisher Max Szczur will talk about Ladislav Klim , his significance for Czech culture, the history of the translation, read excerpts from his works, and answer questions from the audience.
With the participation of Max Shchur and Yana Kolyasheva .
19:30-20:30 – Creative evening by Max Shchur .
